According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism No. 25 PH 351 July 1994, “Epidemiologic studies reveal the extent of alcohol's effect on transportation safety in the United States. First, 40 percent of all traffic fatalities (the leading cause of accidental death) are alcohol related. Second, although alcohol has not been directly implicated in U.S. commercial airline crashes, typical estimates of alcohol involvement by pilots in fatal general aviation crashes range from 10 to 30 percent. Third, a recent review of Coast Guard reports suggests possible alcohol involvement in 60 percent of boating fatalities (including persons who fell overboard). Finally, in post-accident testing of railroad employees in 1990, 3.2 percent tested positive for alcohol or other prohibited drugs. The percentage of alcohol or other drug involvement may be higher when a fatality is involved.”
As such, there is a need for a method and system adapted to test and/or prevent an intoxicated individual from operating a vehicle or other device, whether it is a car, boat, plane, bus, heavy equipment, or entry point.
Biometric authentication sensors have been used to prevent or limit access to secure facilities and as a substitute for alternative forms of security such as keycards or passwords. Biometric sensors are often considered superior to other identification systems as they are generally more difficult to disable, tamper with, or bypass. However, biometric sensors have still not gained wide acceptance in the field of automobiles and other vehicles. This may be because biometric sensors are expensive, difficult to integrate with existing vehicles, or difficult to operate.
The operation of a vehicle normally requires only a key. Anti-theft devices exist which add security based on a pass code. More advanced anti-theft devices exist to disable vehicles if biometric authentication, such as a fingerprint scan, is unsuccessful. Limited standalone breathalyzer devices exist to disable a vehicle if a driver's blood alcohol level exceeds preset levels.
Vehicle control systems are severely lacking in a variety of aspects. For example, there is not one individual system that ties each of the elements together. For example, to require a breathalyzer test and a biometric identification would presently require two distinct systems that are redundant, costly, and not necessarily compatible.
Also, although substance testing, such as alcohol testing, is typically associated with driving under the influence (DUI), it can also be associated with medicine, workplace safety, probation monitoring, etc. Breath and in-vitro (e.g., blood and saliva) substance measurement methods are currently used to correlate (determine) a concentration of the substance in a person. The breath and in-vitro substance measurement techniques suffer from three key limitations. That is, they require handling of a bodily fluid, which gives rise to biohazard concerns, they require some degree of direct subject supervision from a test administrator, and they do not measure the concentration of substance actually in the person in real time.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and system for non-invasive and/or in-vivo substance testing that can improve biohazard safety and/or provide unsupervised and/or actual real time testing. Further, there exists a need for a method and system that can be combinable with an authenticator, such as a biometric sensor, to automate the testing, reduce and/or eliminate fraud and/or the need for supervision during testing and/or to prevent or limit an intoxicated individual from operating a vehicle or other device, whether it is a car, boat, plane, bus, heavy equipment, or entry point. The coupling of the biometric sensor with the substance testing system should be as close as possible for concurrent and/or substantially simultaneous authentication and substance evaluation.